Musk uses 61 characters to lift wealth by $1.4 bn
NEWYORK/SANFRANCISCO: Elon Musk added $1.4 billion to his fortune on Tuesday with a single tweet. Shares in Tesla climbed 11% to $379.57 at 4pm in New York, taking Musk’s fortune to $25.8 billion after he said he’s considering taking the electric carmaker private at $420 a share.
His missive came minutes after the reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had built an undisclosed stake of 35% this year, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter it didn’t identify.
Musk’s tweet said he’s
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secured funding without providing details. A price of $420 a share would value the company at $82 billion including debt. The CEO said in an email to employees that shareholders would have the final say if he decides to follow through on going private.
Tesla directors said they knew last week about Musk’s surprise proposal, but both the board and CEO have a long way to go to convince investors the idea is credible.
“Last week, Elon opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private,” six directors on Tesla’s nine-member board said in a statement. “The board has met several times over the last week and is taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this.” Tesla hasn’t disclosed any sources of financing, and no one has stepped forward publicly to say they’re backing the plan. The board said only that Musk had “addressed the funding for this to occur”. Musk owns an almost 20% stake in Tesla, so he’d still need roughly $70 billion in financing to take Tesla private.